The Pre-National Period’s Swedish Documents as a Source for the Study of the Russian Anthroponymy of Karelia

Abstract

The article deals with the late 16th — early 17th centuries Swedish documents that reflect the anthroponymic system of Kexholm County, one of the territories ceded to Sweden by the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617. This led to the formation of a unique onomasticon which combined Christian names of different religions and ethnic groups. The author analyses Russian anthroponymic units as documented in the above sources and conclude that they all have features proper to the Russian system of personal naming of that period: non-calendar personal names are preserved; calendar names are few in number and display a great variation of forms; russianised names have grammatical properties that distinguish them from corresponding West European Christian names; patronyms derived from those names are formed according to Russian patronymic patterns; naming formulas may vary, however, the binomial pattern ‘personal (calendar, most often modified, or non-calendar) name + patronym’ prevails. The studied documents contain a considerable number of nicknames made up following Russian patterns and onomasiological models of naming. The author shows that all these features were widespread on the former Russian territories and in some neighbouring areas. Also, Russian onomasticon had a strong impact on the non-Slavic onomasticon which manifested itself in the emergence of modified Russian names and trinomial patterns of personal naming.

Keywords

• Swedish official documents
• Kexholm County
• historical regional anthroponymy
• Russian anthroponymic system
• calendar names
• modified calendar names
• non-calendar names
• nicknames
• patronyms